deaffriendly News

Curb cuts, missed hues from Surface's facial recognition, CAPTCHAs, Alexa, and flubbed Starbucks orders were just a few topics mentioned at the Designing and Building Accessible, Inclusive Products panel last month.

You’re having a day… you overslept, spilled your coffee, misplaced your keys, and got a parking ticket. Lovely. Then, the clouds start to part; you go into a business and receive amazing customer service. The staff is dreamy, makes eye contact, smiles at you, knows some signs and you leave feeling a million times better. All of a sudden the day is looking better and the world is a more deaf-friendly place.

Do you know the people who are plugging in reviews on deaffriendly.com? Every quarter, we pick the brains of our most active reviewers. They are the words behind our deaf-friendly mission, the stars of our 1-5 star ratings, and the soul of this website.

We’re kicking off the month of May with big things, announcing the first five Deaf-Friendly Certified Businesses. It’s important to us to celebrate the work of businesses who are not just trying to make the world a more deaf-friendly place, but are making their businesses deaf-friendly places to be.

Spring is here, and with it marks the beginning of a new exciting chapter for us at deaffriendly as we announce our new certification program, Deaf-Friendly Certified Business. This program spotlights businesses around the nation who consistently go above and beyond to provide top notch deaf-friendly customer service to Deaf customers.

Across the country coffee shops, stores, restaurants and gas stations have shuttered their doors. Many businesses have closed for the day in observance of "Day Without Immigrants."

2016 saw Deaf people spotlighted everywhere in the media from Nyle DiMarco taking the world by storm, to staffers such as Leah Katz-Hernandez and Claudia Gordon in the White House, and Roberta "Bobbi" Cordano becoming the first female Deaf president of Gallaudet University.

Back in the day, Deaf celebrations were typically hosted at local Deaf community centers and Deaf clubs. With Deaf community centers and Deaf clubs closing or dwindling down over the last two decades, Deaf people have still found ways to gather. The desire to gather and celebrate is as strong as ever, with parties being hosted in people’s homes or creative venues with the same merriment and festivity shown in decades past.

We’ve all been there. It’s the eyeroll. Or the exasperated sigh. Or the way they walk away and laugh while pointing at you with another co-worker. Maybe it’s even the outright refusal to serve you or provide you with accommodations. However you experience your deaf-challenged moment, it never feels good. Your stomach churns. Your break out into cold sweat. You can feel that rage start to simmer.

One sign of a frequent traveler is picking your flight based on your connection because their favorite airport restaurant is at that hub and the wings there can’t be beat. Another seasoned traveler might pick an airline based on free wifi or the free checked luggage- heck even getting to bring two carry-ons for free is becoming more of a perk and less of a given.